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Tuesday, October 30, 2007

TMD interviews Jasmine Haynes

Welcome to another titillating episode of The Morgan Diaries. Today we are pleased to present an interview with noted author Jasmine Haynes, whose upcoming novel The Fortune Hunter is set to take the shelves by storm. We were able to figuratively sit down with the author over a cup of double shot Espresso and get her to answer a few probing questions.

TMD: Hello, Jasmine. We’d like to thank you for taking the time to talk to us and letting us pick your brain for a bit.

JH: And thank you for having me! I love double shot Espressos. And white chocolate mochas, too.

TMD: We would love to have you tell our readers a little about your new book, The Fortune Hunter.

JH: My latest Jasmine Haynes Berkley Sensation release, The Fortune Hunter, is out in November. It’s a sexy tale of a woman who agrees to be her own husband’s uninhibited mistress. Faith Castle wants a family, Connor Kingston wants to run her father’s company. In a modern-day marriage of convenience, the bargaining begins with the kind of no-holds barred sex life Connor desires and Faith is afraid she can’t live up to. Now everything is on the table, including them...

Please check out The Fortune Hunter movie trailer on my site!

TMD: What inspired this modern take on the arranged marriage story?

JH: In your review, JM pegged it right saying the book has a slightly historical feel to it. That’s because I got the idea when I watched an old Olivia de Havilland movie called “The Heiress,” which is set in the mid-1800s. Yes, I am a Turner Classic Movie channel addict. The heroine in the movie is a plain woman with a rich father, and she is romanced by the handsome Montgomery Clift. But does he want her or does he want her father’s money? And I thought, gee, what if he just came right out and said, “Hey, I want to marry you for your money, but I’ll make it worth every cent.” Of course, I figured they’d both get a lot more than either of them ever bargained for.

TMD: How does this book differ from your other novels?JH: For Jasmine Haynes, The Fortune Hunter is my first full-length. All my other titles have been anthologies or novella-length. The Fortune Hunter is also the first book in a trilogy. The next two books feature Faith’s best friend, then Faith’s cousin. I did find myself doing a bit more humor in this book than in my other Jasmine books. I think Jennifer Skully is slipping in a bit! The book was also a test, because I’ve never written anything that length without killing someone, on the page, at least.TMD: We just have to know. What was the inspiration for the piano bar scene? You can tell us if anyone was hurt making sure it was totally accurate, we won’t tell anyone.JH: I will say that no one was hurt during the research for the piano bar scene. And we didn’t get arrested, either! Oops, didn’t mean to tell you all that!

TMD: This one is from Morgan O. Could you please give me the address of the shop with the special little room in the back?

JH: The shop is in Santa Cruz, California! I’m sure they’d like you to stop on by any time. I will say the scene that takes place in that little shop did happen, but I was only there on behalf of a friend, not myself, of course. Research, you know. Hmm, I wonder if they’d like to carry The Fortune Hunter on their shelves!

TMD: How much time do you spend actually researching the locations you use in your novels?

JH: I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and most of my locales are right here, places I see all the time, as with The Fortune Hunter, which is set in the Silicon Valley and San Francisco. I did set one of my Jennifer Skully books, Fool’s Gold, in a fictional town in Nevada called Goldstone. However, it was patterned exactly after the town my brother-in-law lives in. I went there for a visit and just had to write about it. So I don’t spend a lot of time researching locations, because I write what I know. Or I make up a place!

TMD: Your books have to date been both inventive and original while not necessarily adhering to the normal romance format. What are some of your literary influences?

JH: Thank you for that compliment! I always loved romance. I read the classics by Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Jane Austen. And I discovered I needed the happy ending, like Jane Eyre ending up with Mr. Rochester rather than everyone either dying or living their lives unhappily as in Wuthering Heights. I also loved Daphne Du Maurier, Victoria Holt and Phyllis Whitney, which is where I got my love of romantic mysteries.

TMD: You write under a couple different pen names. Do you find assuming a new persona frees you to write something you normally wouldn’t?

JH: I always wrote different genres (within romance, of course, always had to have the romance!), and it was only when I realized the tone was different that I decided to use different pen names so that readers would realize that. JB Skully was my first as I was writing a darker-toned paranormal mystery series which I call the Max series. Jennifer Skully was totally different, being much more light-hearted, though with a touch of paranormal. And Jasmine Haynes came last when I tried my hand at erotic romance.

TMD: Your other books have always had a slight paranormal twist to them. Have you found yourself writing toward this genre or have you always been interested in the spookier side of romance?JH: I’ve always loved the paranormal. One of my favorite books when I was younger was The Reincarnation of Peter Proud. I love ghosts, psychics, reincarnation. I’m not so much into the mythical creatures such as vampires and werewolves.

TMD: As a writer who is published in print and the ebook format, what are the major differences between the two sides of the modern publishing industry that you’ve noticed?JH: The difference to me is the speed with which things can be accomplished in e-publishing. I can finish a book in June and have it out in a couple of months. In the print world, the fastest it can happen is 8 months. I like that instant gratification.

TMD: What can we expect to see hitting the shelves from your assembled personalities in the near future?

JH: As I mentioned, The Fortune Hunter, out in November, is the first in a trilogy. The second book, Show and Tell, will be available in July 2008 and Games People Play will be released in early, hopefully, 2009. I will also have a novella in a Berkley anthology with Joey Hill, JC Burton and Denise Rosetti which is tentatively scheduled for December 2008 release. Jennifer Skully and JB Skully are on hiatus right now.

TMD: We’d like to thank you for joining us for coffee and the chat. It has been a pleasure talking with you. Please tell our readers where they can find out you on the net?